This item is the reason I decided to begin this blog. There's a lack of people in Australia who blog about pharmacy makeup in my opinion and as a student, I know the feels of a tight budget! Anyway, I bought this contouring kit at Pricline on sale from a regular $17 to $11.80 which is really worth considering that it has 6 pressed powders which would otherwise be around $7 each. Before buying this product, I had read good reviews on it but that some of the darker powders were too muddy. Everyone's skin type and colour varies so I bought my own kit despite the reviews on the contour shades.
The packaging was pretty neat and feels quite sturdy and I've dropped it already and didn't break unlike a lot of my other products. It's definitely smaller than I expected but as mentioned above, is worth the price marked. There are 6 shades inside and I find that all the highlight ones are useful but only one of the contour ones suit me. The left most contour shade was a bit too red, the middle one too cold coloured and yes muddy, the third one was perfect for me as it was in between the other two shades and is not the darkest one, though the packaging says that. The powders are really pigmented and not too loose but loose enough to blend in nicely.
The right most highlight is slightly sparkly and I used it as a luminiser. It provides a good sheen to the face that is slightly purple tinted and gives a really posh looking glow. The yellowy and pinky powders are not too light but they provide a light base for the luminiser powder. They are also ideal for concealer touch ups. Yellows cancel out red tones that I have a lot of due to my rawer pimples and the pink cancels out any brown scars.
I didn't do any swatches to show you because the lighter colours just wouldn't show up on my arm which would defeat the purpose of a picture trying to show you what it looked like.
Pros and Cons
I have listed most of them above but the pros would be
-affordable
-highlight shades, especially the luminiser
-packaging
-instructions on the back!
-powder pigmentation was good
Cons
- muddy contour colours
- easy colour contamination, the powders are very close together
-talc based. dries skin and clogs pores\
Would I buy this product again? Recommend it?
I would definitely recommend this for someone starting out makeup, although contouring should be done when you're more experienced. It's decent quality and I'm satisfied with it because it does what it says- contour and highlight. As for the colours that I can't use for contouring, I could always use it as an eyeshadow or something; they're versatile brown colours so it's perfect! If I don't find a product better than this one of value then yes I will be buying this again!